Bariatric Tx Seems To Stymie Type 2 Diabetes

Obese patients who underwent bariatric surgery had an 83 percent lower incidence of type 2 diabetes compared with a control group that did not have weight-loss surgery, data from a large Swedish study showed.

Almost four times as many patients in the control group developed type 2 diabetes during 15 years of follow-up. Patients who had impaired fasting glucose (IFG) prior to surgery appeared to benefit most from bariatric surgery's preventive effect on type 2 diabetes, reported Lars Sjöström, MD, PhD, of the University of Gothenburg, and colleagues in the Aug. 23 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Among patients with impaired fasting glucose, bariatric surgery reduced the risk by 87 percent, and type 2 diabetes did not develop in approximately 10 of 13 obese patients who underwent bariatric surgery. This risk reduction is at least twice as large as that observed with lifestyle interventions in moderately obese, prediabetic persons," they said.